“I think that if the technical goodness of a kernel was the
defining issue, then one of the *BSDs would certainly be where
Linux is today.
“It is hard to say why Linux caught on, and the *BSDs did not,
but I definitely think it has to do with the community spirit that
the Linux community has managed to garner.”
“… I am REALLY GLAD that Richard Stallman is the way he
is, and has the ideals he has, because he continues to show me the
path that I SHOULD be going, even though I may only get halfway
there. Without his lead, I would have no epitome to
reach.”
“I have not looked at the HURD’s design, but I understand that
it is based on a microkernel, and from this you may get the idea
that it is a “more modern design”. But OSF’s code was based on a
microkernel, and so was MkLinux and a variety of other systems that
have come out. None of these have shown a performance improvement
over what can be done with a well-structured monolithic kernel with
loadable device drivers and loadable kernel modules.”